One of the latest entertainments found in dram shops, parties, college campuses, tailgate parties, and other venues where beer is served and is otherwise consumed is the drinking game of “Beer Pong”. The game generally requires a flat playing surface such as an elongated table upon which two sets of upright cups are placed. Generally, each set of cups is placed a respective end of the elongated table, with a noticeable distance between the sets of cups. As placed proximate to its respective end, the set of cups have the cups arranged in a triangle shaped format, similar to the arrangement for setting up bowling pins. The set of cups is aligned to have its triangle base of its format facing with respective end of the table while the set's triangle point faces towards to other end of the table facing the triangle point of the other set of cups' setup. Generally, speaking the length of the table allows the two sets of cups to be spaced sufficiently apart at their respective ends. Once the cup setup is completed, the cups are then each partially filled with beer and the game is ready to be played with at least two opposing players (or two opposing teams of players) and a beer pong ball (e.g., a table tennis ball).
At commence of play, each player/team is assigned to a respective end of the beer pong table, alternates taking turns of play. During a respective turn, the player/team, positioned at its assigned table end, throws the beer pong ball in an attempt to land it in one of the beer-containing-cups of other player/team. When a ball lands in a cup of a defending player/team, the defending player/team must consume all of the beer inside that cup. The game is won by the player/team who eliminates the other player/team's cups (e.g., forces the other player/team to drink all beer in its/their cups) before all of the player/team's own cups are eliminated. The losing player/team must then consume all the remaining beer in the winning player/team's cups.
Now, continuous beer consumption in such a manner, especially when several matches are played, or even tournaments are held, can sufficiently impair motor control, balance, eye-hand coordination, judgment, emotion/thought centers of the participating players to ensure that player participation in beer pong is challenging affair, yet there is still a need for a new means to make the game of beer pong more even exciting and enjoyable, thus enticing even more people to join this soon to become national past time game.
A possible solution could be a new non-static, electro-mechanical beer pong table that moves the cups in one or more directions, simultaneously or in sequence, to make beer pong game play more challenging and exciting for a player to land a beer pong ball into a beer-laden cup. Such a table could use actuators operating through an electronic controller to provide the cup movement(s) as well as provide an operator of the table with the ability to adjust cup movement(s) to control the action of the game played on such a table.